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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Plant Sci.
Sec. Plant Abiotic Stress
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpls.2025.1528723
This article is part of the Research Topic Managing Metal Toxicity in Plants and Soil: Strategies for Stress Mitigation and Remediation View all 7 articles

Assessment of Metal Residues in Soil and Evaluate the Plant Accumulation in Copper Mine Tailings of Dongchuan, Southwest China

Provisionally accepted
Lijuan Deng Lijuan Deng 1Min Yin Min Yin 2Shuanglin Yang Shuanglin Yang 1Xiaoyun Wang Xiaoyun Wang 1*Juan Chen Juan Chen 1*Deren Miao Deren Miao 1*Yin Genshen Yin Genshen 1Shuhua Zhai Shuhua Zhai 1*Yuan Su Yuan Su 1*Zhen Ren Zhen Ren 1*
  • 1 Kunming University, Kunming, China
  • 2 Yunnan University, Kunming, Yunnan Province, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    This study aimed to identify suitable plants for remediating metal pollution in copper tailing soil and supporting ecological reclamation in Dongchuan, Yunnan, focusing on three major mining regions: Tangdan, Yinmin, and Lanniping.The Nemerow comprehensive pollution index was employed to evaluate the metal contamination levels, and the enrichment and transfer capacities of the dominant plants for Cd, Cu, Pb, and Zn were analyzed to identify remediation candidates. The findings revealed severe pollution in the copper tailing soil, with Cu as the primary pollutant, and with a pollution rate of 77.778%. A total of 96 plant species from 42 families and 87 genera were recorded, including 29 dominant species across 17 families and 26 genera, with herbs comprising 62.068% of the dominant types.Among the tested plants, Leucaena leucocephala, Rumex acetosa, Festuca rubra, and Salix balfouriana exhibited significantly higher metal enrichment and transfer capacities, rendering them for ecological restoration. Salix balfouriana with the highest comprehensive membership function score of 5.298 was identified as the preferred species for ecological restoration in the Dongchuan Cu tailing area.Correlation analysis revealed a positive relationship between the metal content in underground plant parts and both the total metal content and organic matter (OM) in the rhizosphere soil, whereas a negative correlation was observed with soil pH.

    Keywords: Copper tailings, Metals, Phytoremediation, Salix balfouriana, Combined pollution index

    Received: 15 Nov 2024; Accepted: 27 Jan 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 Deng, Yin, Yang, Wang, Chen, Miao, Genshen, Zhai, Su and Ren. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence:
    Xiaoyun Wang, Kunming University, Kunming, China
    Juan Chen, Kunming University, Kunming, China
    Deren Miao, Kunming University, Kunming, China
    Shuhua Zhai, Kunming University, Kunming, China
    Yuan Su, Kunming University, Kunming, China
    Zhen Ren, Kunming University, Kunming, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.